Mountie said son was ‘conning’ psychologist years before severe child abuse charges
An 11-year-old boy showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder three years before his parents were accused of severely abusing him, a child psychologist testified Monday.
The psychologist, who can’t be named due to a court ordered publication ban, also testified the boy was neither a manipulative liar nor sexually aggressive as his parents claimed.
The boy’s 44-year-old Mountie father and his 36-year-old stepmother, neither of whom can be named to protect their son’s identity, were charged in February 2013 in what Ottawa police have called the “worst case of abuse police have seen.”
The trial resumed Monday after being adjourned for a month.
The psychologist testified he was hired by the boy’s father to help in a custody battle against the boy’s maternal grandparents after the boy’s mother died.
Though his report — conducted over the course of six months, beginning when the boy was seven — helped the boy’s father and stepmother gain sole custody with no visitation for the grandparents, he did note some disturbing behaviour.
The father and stepmother told the psychologist that the boy was a defensive, manipulative liar who repeatedly stole things and that it was appropriate to punish him with cold showers and push-ups.
The father also told the psychologist he was concerned that the boy’s tendency to hug girls would lead him to become a “sexual predator.” But the psychologist said he found no evidence of anything the parents described after conducting several tests.
“I found him a very pleasant little boy who easily co-operated,” he said.
‘He’s conning you,’ father said
The psychologist said the father became “enraged” when he shared his findings.
“He’s a liar, he’s a manipulator and he’s conning you,” the father said, the psychologist testified.
The psychologist said the boy was experiencing attachment disorder after the death of his mother and the bitter custody battles.
The psychologist said that stealing candy at school and hugging girls are classic symptoms of the disorder.
During their last session together, the boy told the psychologist that his father forced him to sleep in the unfinished basement.
The psychologist told the court he was angry and told the father he would report him for child abuse if the sleeping arrangement did not change.
“You can’t do that. I don’t want you terrorizing your son,” the psychologist said he told the father.
The father responded, “Don’t call me a terrorist.”
Police sources previously told CBC News that the father was part of the RCMP’s counter-terrorism unit.
Years later, the boy’s parents were arrested and accused of severe long-term abuse, including chaining the boy up in the basement of their home.
The father and stepmother are accused of aggravated assault, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessaries of life. The woman is also charged with assaulting the child with a weapon, while the man is charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon.
‘Fear and sadness in him’
Last month, court heard the young boy, now 13, showed up on a neighbour’s doorstep in November 2011 with marks on his wrists, rug burns and a protruding ribcage more than a year before his RCMP father and stepmother were arrested, and that police returned him to his home.
“There was fear and sadness in him,” testified the neighbour, whose own young daughter opened the door for the boy.
“I was heartbroken, watching him. My instinct was to hold him and comfort him,” she told the court.
The woman who testified, who cannot be named, said she noticed what looked like ligature marks on his wrists, and that his forearms and most of his stomach were covered in what looked like rug burns. As well, the boy’s stomach was “sunken” and she could see his ribcage, she testified.
The boy told her he had to do 600 push-ups before he could eat and that he hadn’t had a meal in two days, the woman testified. She gave him cake and a glass of milk and called police, who took the boy home, she said.
When police returned later, however, they said the boy had exaggerated what happened and that there was food on his table at home, the woman testified. She added that, at the time, she figured the officers had done the right thing.
The court has previously examined 160 photos of the scarred, emaciated boy when he was admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in 2013, as well as cell phone videos from 2013 of the boy naked and restrained in the basement of his family’s home.
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